By Bill Shedd, AFTCO

In the past decade, performance fishing shirts have evolved from vented, cotton and poly-blend shirts towards materials and fabrications that feature improved synthetic technology. But in the world of performance fishing shirts, which is better—old or new?

Since 1989 the American Fishing Tackle Company (AFTCO) has designed, produced and sold over 25 million garments for men and women anglers and others who love being in, on, and around the water. Those sales include cotton T-shirts, long sleeve and short sleeve sun protection performance shirts, hats, fishing shorts and more. Our long-term involvement with fishing clothing has generated many questions from both our retail partners and consumers about sun protection fishing shirts. At the center of many of those questions is confusion and misinformation.

It is not as complicated as many make it to be. Read more

Have you ever been fishing Michigan waters and pulled in a fish with a missing fin or one with an external tag on it? Several fish species found around the state are marked in some way, and the details on the fish and the tags are important to several DNR studies and management efforts.

Such species include Chinook and Atlantic salmon, steelhead, walleye, lake sturgeon and brown and lake trout. A fish may have an external mark, such as a fin clip, or the mark could be internal and not visible to the naked eye. Many fish with internal tags also will have a clipped fin. For instance, a fish with an implanted coded-wire tag in its snout would be missing its adipose fin (the small, fleshy fin found to the rear of a fish’s dorsal, or top, fin). Read more

Our coastline is like a magician’s hat – you never know what you’ll pull out! Red drum and flounder are just two delicious fish you might catch when you surf or wade fish.

To wade fish you walk into the water, sliding your feet to better sneak up on your prey. Surf fishing is done from the shore. Check out these 5 tips to increase your near-shore luck:

1. Use natural baits like mullet or Gulf shrimp (never use non-Gulf shrimp as bait).
2. Wear polarized sunglasses to cut surface glare.
3. Use a variety of sinkers to hold your bait in place.
4. Cast your line near underwater structures like sandbars.
5. Fish while the tide is rising or falling for the best advantage.

You find more tips and an equipment list on the Texas Parks & Wildlife blog post, Wade in and Catch Fish. Try fishing along the shore this fall and winter, when you won’t have to contend with swimmers scaring off the fish.

Be aware that the daily bag limit on flounder drops to 2 fish from Nov. 1 – Dec. 15, and they can be taken only by pole-and-line (no gigging) during the month of Nov. Check the Outdoor Annual for saltwater bag and length limits.

A bloom of the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, persists in Southwest Florida. Additional details are provided below.

• In Southwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background to very low concentrations in Pinellas County, background concentrations in Manatee County, background to low concentrations in Sarasota County, very low to high concentrations in and/or offshore of Charlotte County, background to high concentrations in and/or offshore of Lee County, and very low to high concentrations in and/or offshore of Collier County. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 K. brevis cells per liter) persist in Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties, and high concentrations (>1 million cells per liter) were observed in 23 samples. These included coastal, inlet, and estuarine sites in Charlotte and Lee Counties, as well as samples collected as far as 7-10 miles offshore of Lee and Collier counties.
• In Northwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was not observed.
• Along the Florida East Coast over the past week, K. brevis was not observed.

In Southwest Florida over the past week, fish kill reports were received for Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties (please see https://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/health/fish-kills-hotline).

Respiratory irritation was reported over the past week in Southwest Florida at multiple beaches in Sarasota and Lee counties. Read more

An experimental regulation that allows for 33 streams in the Upper Peninsula to have a 10-fish daily possession limit for brook trout has been extended. This regulation expired Oct. 1 of this year, but was reauthorized by the Michigan Natural Resources Commission at its meeting today in Lansing.

Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologists recommended against reinstituting the 10 brook trout daily possession limit on the select streams because of concerns based on biological and social science.

Select Type 1 streams, which are designated trout streams, in the Upper Peninsula have this regulation. They represent about 8% of the total mileage for Type 1 streams in the U.P. Read more

Michigan Department of Natural Resources Director Dan Eichinger Tuesday confirmed the commitment of $8 million in state funds for the preconstruction, engineering and design phase of a multifaceted barrier system to prevent invasive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes.

In a Nov. 4, 2019 letter to Lieutenant General Todd Semonite, chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Eichinger explained that the funds were appropriated as non-federal match for design of a system of structural and non-structural control measures at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in the Chicago Area Waterway System near Joliet, Illinois. Brandon Road is a critical pinch point for keeping bighead, silver and black carp – the Asian carp species of greatest concern – out of the Great Lakes. Read more